Homebrew Large NeoGeo games support and CPS3 tests

[GreyWolf]

Thanks for your kind words. To enable RetroAchievements, Retroarch has to be modified not only the core. It's a lot of work since there's no networking available for retroarch wii. It wasn't my goal anyway. But I agree that it'd be pretty cool.

Do you have it in a repository?

 

[Wiimpathy]

GreyWolf
No. All sources and patches : https://gbatemp.net/threads/large-neogeo-games-support-and-cps3-tests.493767/page-4#post-8079555

May I ask why?

 

[METALIGALO]

Thanks a lot, great project my friend!!

congratulations for the great work done, here some games have the following message “warning this rom cartridge is for use with original snk boards only…” is there any solution?

 

[Wiimpathy]

Which games? Can you give crc32 when you open the zip with Winrar?
You're using Unibios right?

 

[rogerioronin]

Thanks a lot, great project my friend!!

congratulations for the great work done, here some games have the following message “warning this rom cartridge is for use with original snk boards only…” is there any solution?

Amigo esta mensagem esta aparecendo porque você esta usando uma rom não compatível, simples assim, esta versão do FBA só é compatível com roms v0.2.97.29 ou anterior!

 

[SieKensou]

@Wiimpathy
I have some questions:
1) Before compile the dol, is there a file with the rom info (name files and crc32) that can be edited to add or remove roms?
2) Why this method to load big roms uses the chache system? I mean, it has sense in PSP because it reads directly from the Memory Stick, but here the part of the rom that doens't fit in RAM is loaded into the NAND. The cache is not more than the sprite and/or audio data ordered (decrypted). Couldn't the emulator itself order the rom when it's being loaded without using the cache?
3) Is possible to add options to the core to select between MVS/AES mode and between JAP/USA/EUR region? I know it can be selected with the UNIBIOS, but it would be great to have this options to select what you want with the original BIOS too.
Thanks, and congratulations one more time for the good job you did with this core.

 

[Wiimpathy]

1.
https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha2012_neogeo/blob/master/src/burn/drv/neogeo/d_neogeo.cpp#L5547
For example kof99:
{ "251-c1.c1", 0x800000, 0x0f9e93fe, 3 | BRF_GRA }, // 5 Sprite data
{ Name, Size in hex, crc32, fba filetype}

2.
You seem to imply we could decrypt the files without a cache. But it still wouldn't fit all in Ram right? SVC Grahics and Sound : 64 + 16 = 80.
Retroarch dol takes around 11 MB. Look at Wii ram too: http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Hardware/Main_Memory
Some part of the slower Mem2 is reserved, so in total it's around 78 or less in retroarch.

Moreover, in fba the sprite decrypting function is allocating sprite size * 2 :
https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha2012_neogeo/blob/master/src/burn/drv/neogeo/neogeo.cpp#L94

PSP has 32 or 64 MiB contiguous Ram and relies on mmap function : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mmap
Libogc doesn't have mmap equivalent unfortunately. But Tueidj's nand vm offers a good alternative even if flash access is a bit slow.

Implementing his vm and using the converter was the best solution I could see for minimal changes in fba code too.
I don't say it can't be improved or done differently but if it was so simple someone would have already made it in 10 years.

3.
Yes, but there's a bug when using original bios. It takes minutes to load that's why I recommend using Unibios which is more flexible and has more options.
I don't know why it's doing that, I didn't bother to look for a fix either knowing there's the unibios.

 

[SieKensou]

@Wiimpathy
Thanks for the reply and thanks for let me know how it wors. I didn't wanted to say that is done in the wrong way. I think you did a great job and I was just triying to help to optimize it for the Wii (but as you can see I have no idea so I can't do too much more than ask or tell my "ideas"). I was wrong about the cache, so sorry and thanks for explain how it works.
It's a pity about that bug with the original BIOS, I think it would be a great addition.

About the cache files, I noticed another difference with the PSP. In the PSP, as the graphics and sound roms are in the cache, they are not needed to be in the game zip file because it loads that data from the cache. In the Wii version, if I remove that files from the zip, the game will not load, so we use the double of size for each game... Does the emulator use these files in the zip file (the "c" and "v" roms) or is just for the init to check if the files have the right crc?

And about the drivers, I would like to do a custom FBA removing some games and adding another ones... I still think it would be much better if each driver was in a single file (so that way you can remove, add new ones or edit them). Would be too much complex to separate the drivers in files in a folder and make the core load the files from there? Let's say you load kof94.zip, so the core has to "look for" kof94.drv (or what extension you want to use in that driver files) and if found, load it with that info contened in the driver file... Or maybe just load all the driver files in memory at the same time when the core is initialized... It even could be only a single file containing all the drivers you want... This way we could load even more games that now are not in the list or use some hacks or edited roms.

After play a game (speciall games that uses the cache and VM) the emulator can crash, so it is recommended to restart RetroArch before load a new game. I think this is cause for the memory not being cleared correctly or something like that. Do you think you could check it? or maybe just make that when you close content automatically restart RetroArch?

I noticed that in the driver list is the full name of each game, can't be that used to show that name in when you want to load content instead just the zip name?

Do you have a github with this release?
Is the feature of loading big games the only change you did? Or did you make some change to improve NeoGeo emulation?

In later versions of FBA they added this new version of this KOF96 hack, do you think you could add it to the driver list to make it load, please?
The King of Fighters '96 (Anniversary Edition 2.0.0430, EGHT hack) [Hack]
Curiously, the supported version (that is older) doesn't work.
The King of Fighters '96 (Anniversary Edition, EGHT hack) [Hack]
I tried it with your core and it says it needs the chache (I guess, although its size is not very big, it has extended graphics, so maybe they doesn't fit in memory). There is some problem with this game, it does the cache conversion wrong or something, because it still doesn't work. If you add the driver for the new version I don't mind about this one really, I prefer the last version.

Thanks for all the great job with this core.

 

[Dcep1501]

First off, you all are amazing for getting CPS3 working on the Wii. Thanks for the hard work you do and share with the rest of us who aren't tech-savvy.
Has anyone here done a 'how to' vid on installing CPS3 and the roms, as of yet? I feel much safer following along, visually. I also read in this thread that SF III Third Strike runs pretty good, now. Is there any vids on that?

Edit: I already have Mame 2000 installed but when I tried installing 2003, it only loaded once and only gave me a black screen, so I had to reinstall Mame 2000.

 

[Ericsonanzois]

Hello, congrats for your work in turn CPS3 games on wii. SFIII 2nd impact not is bad. The framerate is low but i dont know if is problem with Wii hardware or is emulation.

 

[Wiimpathy]

FBA NeoGeo VM 0.4

* Based on latest fbalpha2012_neogeo core.
* Compiled with DevkitPPC 29.1 and libogc 1.8.17. With DevkitPPC 30+ vm code is freezing?!
* Compiled using Retroarch 1.7.4. Translation support removed (HAVE_LANGEXTRA = 0) to save memory.
* Universe Bios is forced for large games only. It still needs a better method or fix.


And an alt version wich loads translation files from sd card. This one is just a test, incomplete and buggy :

FBA NeoGeo VM 0.4 Ext-Lang


In these versions, there's an issue with Garou, you have to change the mode to 'console' in Unibios or else it's stuck with the 'Warning...' message.
You also must restart Retroarch after a game using nand memory. There's a bug in the latest retroarch with scanlines overlay. You have to disable 'Show window decoration' and 'deflicker' first in Video settings.

Radius4 If you're still interested, here's the github's branch : https://github.com/Wiimpathy/fbalpha2012_neogeo/tree/Wii_VM
By the way, do you know which devkit is used for the buildbot?

 

[Radius4]

Heeey I had forgotten all about this thanks!
Not sure on the toolchain I'm no longer part of the main dev team, but I'll check and get back to you.

Edit:

Seems there is no version info... it's just extracted to a PPC folder
but there is this info


$ cat dkppc-update.ini
[libogc]
Version=1.8.12
File=libogc-1.8.12.tar.bz2

[devkitPPC]
Version=27
File=devkitPPC_r27-x86_64-linux.tar.bz2

[libogcfat]
Version=1.0.14
File=libfat-ogc-1.0.14.tar.bz2

[wiiexamples]
Version=20110620
File=wii-examples-20110620.tar.bz2

[cubeexamples]
Version=20110620
File=gamecube-examples-20110620.tar.bz2

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Hey, @Wiimpathy twinaphex is asking if you can send a PR since you have permission to use this file in fba 2012.

 

[Wiimpathy]

LibretroRetroArc and Radius4,
Ok, I've sent a Pull request.
Maybe, I'm doing something wrong but with r27 I had errors when compiling. Strange but the builbot seems to work so that's not a problem I guess. As long as you don't upgrade to r30 or more. VM isn't working with anything past r30. I don't have a bloody idea why.

 

[nashismo]

Wiimpathy one question, can you update the Retroarch dol file or do we have to use all the files (without ever changing them) from the rar you uploaded?

 

[JapaNice]

Wiimpathy Very thanks for project!
You Helped me a make Arcade with Wii please see my video of Wii Arcade
Thanks

 

[soniccomcisbr]

Amigo esta mensagem esta aparecendo porque você esta usando uma rom não compatível, simples assim, esta versão do FBA só é compatível com roms v0.2.97.29 ou anterior!

I'm having problems to find these old romsets. Can you send me a message with a link for download this romset?

 

[comokepa]

Can this release be consolidated with the one for Mame 2003 Plus? Besides each release's respective cores, both have a boot.dol whose md5 checksum are different. I would like to be able to use both this core as well as those from Mame 2003 Plus' release with a same boot.dol for ease of use. Is that possible? If so, @Wiimpathy, how should I go about merging them?

 

[Wiimpathy]

Can this release be consolidated with the one for Mame 2003 Plus? Besides each release's respective cores, both have a boot.dol whose md5 checksum are different. I would like to be able to use both this core as well as those from Mame 2003 Plus' release with a same boot.dol for ease of use. Is that possible? If so, @Wiimpathy, how should I go about merging them?

Mixing different different Retroarch versions is often problematic. The .cfg files may have conflicts. That's why the fbaneo core and the first mame+ I've posted had custom .cfg. You can try to change the core directory settings. Or rename the cores to boot.dol in dedicated folders. But, I'm not sure that'll work correctly when launched through Homebrew channel.

The ideal solution is to use the cores as plugins with Wiiflow and with custom .cfg.
However, there's also a bug in all the recent retroarch that skips the .cfg when launched like this. I have a fix but I haven't sent it to their repository yet.

By the way, in case you don't know, the fbaneo core is now part of the official builds : https://retroarch.com/?page=platforms

 

[comokepa]

Mixing different different Retroarch versions is often problematic. The .cfg files may have conflicts. That's why the fbaneo core and the first mame+ I've posted had custom .cfg. You can try to change the core directory settings. Or rename the cores to boot.dol in dedicated folders. But, I'm not sure that'll work correctly when launched through Homebrew channel.

Hi. Thank you for the reply. I am lost, though, and did not quite grasp what you meant. I had assumed that, in order to play any libretro core, one first needed retroarch itself, which would be the boot.dol, and then the specific core itself, which would be the custom named .dol that one loads from within retroarch-wii. And since both projects (FBANeo & Mame 2003 Plus) have their own boot.dol (i.e. retroarch?) I had asumed maybe one could drop the cores of one project into the folder of the other and keep the later's boot.dol only. But you seem to suggest that I can do without the boot.dol in both projects and run cores themselves directly. Is that so.?

The ideal solution is to use the cores as plugins with Wiiflow and with custom .cfg.
However, there's also a bug in all the recent retroarch that skips the .cfg when launched like this. I have a fix but I haven't sent it to their repository yet.

Could you (or someone else) guide me with a precise example of how to add one of the cores to WiiFlow like this?

By the way, in case you don't know, the fbaneo core is now part of the official builds : https://retroarch.com/?page=platforms

https://retroarch.com/?page=platforms

So you mean we can ignore this thread's released binaries themselves?

 

[Wiimpathy]

Yes, you can launch a core directly. For a quick test, try with to launch fbalpha2012_neogeo_libretro_wii.dol with WiiXplorer. So yes, you could rename it to boot.dol and start it in Homebrew channel. The default boot.dol is just some kind of dol launcher.
But, as I said, there are often conflicts with config files between versions. Ideally, you could put all your cores in the same folder, and change the core path in retroarch settings. But, I tried it and the mame core was crashing...

For wiiflow plugins, you have a good guide here : https://gbatemp.net/threads/wiiflow-4-the-masterpiece-pack-by-abz.336543/
Generally, you just have to copy a .dol in Wiiflow/plugins and modify the corresponding .ini with the roms path('romdir') etc..
And assign a button in Wiiflow/source_menu/source_menu.ini. Just look in the pack and the wiki too : https://sites.google.com/site/wiiflowiki4/plugins-setup

And yes, you can download the neo core from retroarch website now.